Hospital-Wide Nurses' Training Program: Mid-Program Report
To date, six of a total of ten nurses’ training teams have successfully provided week-long training sessions to the nursing staff of Robert Reid Cabral Children’s Hospital since the start of the hospital-wide nurses’ training endeavor this past January 2012. 215 Robert Reid nurses have completed the program, and the remaining 170 will be enrolled in the remaining four courses scheduled to take place before the end of July 2012. Nineteen World Pediatric Project nurse faculty have traveled over the past five months to provide this intensive continued education to the hospital’s nurses. By the end of the program, 25 different nurse faculty will have contributed their expertise to training the Robert Reid staff, with 10 of these exceptional volunteers traveling twice during the seven-month period, and one traveling three times. The David Ortiz Children’s Fund has been fully committed to sponsoring the efforts of these highly skilled volunteers and makes it possible for the program to unfold quickly and efficiently to impact care being delivered at the country’s largest pediatric referral hospital. To enjoy a three-minute video clip of the program in action, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cPjVJkaAh4&feature=youtu.be
Observational assessment of the training program’s impact already reveals noteworthy changes taking place in the delivery of care at the hospital:
• Faculty note that Robert Reid nurses are feeling more empowered, sharing their clinical input and perspective respectfully but boldly with Robert Reid physicians to impact the course of care provided to their young patients. Prior to the program this kind of collaborative input was not practiced.
• Faculty observe more cooperation by the clinical unit physicians with the Robert Reid nurses, and their growing openness allows the nurses to put into practice their skills being strengthened through the program.
• Faculty notice the Robert Reid nurses providing more meaningful direction and support to families in the area of palliative care and child abuse intervention
• Robert Reid nurses remark on how they have shared their new knowledge with their colleague nurses who have yet to take the program. This informal dissemination of knowledge captures the program’s “train the trainer” model in action, as we have first trained the hospital’s professional nurses and will begin in June to train the hospital’s auxiliary nurses.
Even with evidence of meaningful and significant change taking place, there are several systemic barriers that must be addressed so that the hospital can fully utilize the nurses’ new skills and ensure improved patient care outcomes. World Pediatric Project is taking action to address the challenges Robert Reid nurses face: in late May the program’s leadership will share a mid-program report with the hospital’s administrative leadership outlining recommended changes that must be made at the hospital level to promote sustainable results. These recommendations speak to the challenges of engaging and enforcing the hospital physicians’ buy-in to the widening of the scope of practice for the Robert Reid nurse; and improving accurate representation of infection outbreaks in the hospital in order to capture meaningful data on patient outcomes. Also, the hospital lacks basic hand-washing supplies like consistently running water, soap, and paper towels that, if put in place, can considerably impact infection control and patient outcomes in the hospital.
Through its sponsorship of the program, the David Ortiz Children’s Fund is passionately seeking to influence how the hospital makes its own commitments to supporting nursing practice and patient outcomes at the hospital. Confronting challenges directly and collaboratively is an essential part of effecting systemic change, and World Pediatric Project is committed to a partnership approach so that the proven effects of our efforts match the program’s intended far-reaching results.
